Red Light, Green Light
by Annie Lune
Summary: GS...A strange case engulfs all of the CSI, and soon some of them realize that they don’t know when to stop...and when to go… - TBC at a later date -
1. One

**Disclaimer**: For some strange reason, I have still not been able to obtain legal documents saying that I own all of the CSI….hmmm…interesting…

**Spoilers**: Nothing that I can think of.

**A Note**: because I am a sucker for a second story, this happens after my first stab at fanfic called _All Stars_. Haven't read it? Well, that's ok. This story can stand-alone (but if you really want to make me happy, you should go and read it – and then review of course.). In the last one I brought in another character, and she resurfaces in this story, still as an intern with the graveyard shift. 

The first part of this story takes place the Friday after _All Stars_, and the next chapter is two weeks after that.

Nothing else that I can think of…reviews are more than welcome! 8-)

*a.l.  

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"I don't know about this…."

"What, are you scared of something you don't have control over?"

"Yah, and the fact that about twenty people a year die on these things. But other than that, yah, sure, I'm fine."

"You get sarcastic when you are nervous."  

"I know. You _sure_ this is safe?"

"I do these things all the time. What? Do you not trust me or something?"

"Oh no, of course I trust you…"

"I would never put you in a dangerous situation. You, on the other hand, might put yourself in one…"

"Hey! Stop poking fun at me!"

"It's the truth."

"I think I am scared of the machine more than anything else. What happens if we get stuck at the top or something?"

"Then we'll have a pleasant conversation until they get us down."

"If you are tying to lighten the mood, it's not working. And what happens if one of those restraints breaks and I fall to my death?"

"I wouldn't let you fall. I'd stop you."

"You'd be too buys screaming like a kid to do anything.  Have I mentioned that I get motion stickiness?" 

"No, you haven't."

"So now you know."

"You're _really_ scared. I've never seen you like this before."

"What? Sure you have. I get scared all the time. Like when…. no…eh…not that either…how about when…no, that was shock. Ok, maybe you haven't seen me scared, but there is a first time for everything." 

"That is true."

"So this is the first time you have seen me scared and the first time I have ever been on one of these."

"What? Tell me that you're kidding!"

"Sorry, but I led a very secluded life before I met you. Never did anything wild and crazy like inverted loops." 

"This is not something wild and crazy. It has been statistically proven that these rides release stress because our adrenaline levels reach such a high peak."

"Way to find the scientific reason for these things. Don't you do anything just for fun?"

"Racing cockroaches has no scientific purpose."

"I had a feeling you would bring that up at some point."

"Look, here comes the car. You get in first, and I'll make sure you are properly strapped in." 

"Right, so when I fall to my death my family can sue _you_ instead of the management." 

"Ha ha ha. Look, see? All strapped in now. Are you ready for this?"

"About as ready as I'm every going to be."

"Ok, hold tight…"

"Wait, Grissom?"

"Yes Sara?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For getting me out of the lab."

"Oh. You're welcome. Are you ready?"

"Uh huh."

"Okay…here we go…"

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	2. Two

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"If this becomes routine, I think we are going to have to start deducting this from their pay." Catherine Willows said glancing at her watch. "It's been _forty five minutes_! Where could they possible be?"

"Think about what you are saying, they could be anywhere." Nick Stokes said entering the break room and taking a seat on the couch next to Catherine.

"This is the _fourth time_ in _two weeks_ that both of them have been late for shift. In all of Grissom's years here he has never ONCE been more than ten minutes late for a shift. First it started off with fifteen, then on to thirty, and now forty-five minutes late?? This does not sound like him at all." 

"I think Sara has gotten to his head." Warrick Brown said tapping his head as he commented from the coffee pot. "After their whole little "roller coaster riding" date, they seem to be spending a whole lot more time together."

"That wasn't supposed to even be a date! Grissom was trying to point blankly tell Sara that she needs to get out of the lab! Look what it has turned into!" 

"I think you're just scared about loosing you man." Warrick said with a sly smile towards Catherine, who in return gave him a dirty look. 

"Sara can have Grissom for all I care. But I want my _boss_ so I can have a _case_. Brass is going to kill us if he finds out that we haven't done anything yet." She rubbed her forehead like the whole ordeal was giving her a headache. 

"Well, you pull rank after him. Why can't you just hand out assignments?" a voice from the table called. All three of the CSI's in the room spun to see who was talking. Jenny Duke sat at the table listening to their conversation. Jenny had been taken on as an intern three weeks ago, and she had already pulled her share of cases. Jenny had become sort of a drifter; she moved back in forth helping every one else out when they needed it, and if not, she hung out here at the lab with Greg. She was certainly not quite and always stated what was on her her mind, weather or not the CSI wanted to hear it. It was sort of strange having someone new around, but Jenny didn't seem to mind being overlooked sometimes. It was almost as if she found comfort in the walls of the crime lab. Jenny had finished most of her classes over at UNLV for the time being because she would still get nasty looks in the hallway for helping uncover a huge conspiracy with some of the sports players over at the school.  She was set to graduate in a month, and there was some talk of then taking her on as a CSI. 

"You just want to get out of here." Nick called to her, "You've been here with Greg for the last two hours, haven't you?" he said throwing her a playful smile. 

"He was teaching me how the run the machines, big deal. It's not like I'm getting _paid_ for any of this stuff." Jenny said rolling her eyes.

"You're not getting paid?" Nick said a little surprised. 

"Intern, Nick_, Intern_. I'm the gunnie pig of this lab." She added with a little frown. Just last week, she was used as a dummy while they were trying to recreate a rape scene, and then Bobby Dawson recruited her to test fire fifty guns because he needed to observe how they all fired. Jenny had come back from both of those bruised and her ears ringing. 

"You are right though, Jenny." Catherine said standing up. "I'm going to go find us a case." Catherine stood up, but before she could even make it out the door, Detective Jim Brass came running in and almost plowed her over. Catherine stumbled back, and then mumbled something under her breath. 

Brass took a deep breath trying to get some wind back into him. It looked like he had just sprinted down here. "Ok guys," he puffed "I've got something for everyone in this case. Two cars on a back road, one person is dead, another one is unconscious, and we believe a third is MIA. We are thinking maybe a kidnapping, but details seem to be changing every other minuet." 

"That sounds exciting." Warrick half laughing. "This might be the first time in a while when I actually get to max out all of my over time."

"Speaking of overtime," Brass said looking around the room, "Where's Sara?"

"Well, we're not quite sure." Catherine responded, "She hasn't come in yet and we haven't heard from her."

Brass gave her a suspicious look, "And where's Grissom?" he now asked sensing his absence too. 

"He hasn't come in either." Catherine avoided the gaze from Brass. She would crack and spill the whole ordeal about them to him, and that would not be good. The three senior CSI had tried to keep their whole "date" thing on the down low, but Jenny had noticed their absences and behavior, and had alerted Greg Sanders, the lab tech. At this, Greg had tried to butt his way into their business, and Catherine had tried to kill him (once again). Now a good portion of the lab wanted to know what was up with them, and every time Catherine (Or Warrick, or Nick, or even Jenny and Greg now) was asked, she abruptly stated that they were not here because they were doing fieldwork, and turned and then briskly walked in the other direction. 

"Are they together?" Brass now questioned, sensing tension in the room. 

"We're not sure, they're probably off doing some field work." Nick added quickly turning away from Brass and went over to grab a cup of coffee. The three seniors then shot each other darting glances, hoping that Brass wouldn't catch on to anything.  

"Well, when you see Grissom, tell him that I got a bone to pick with him. I'll see you all at the scene." Brass said as he handed the case file to Warrick and headed out the door. 

 "Sooner or later people are going to put two and two together." Warrick said looking over the file.

"Let's just hope they both know what they are doing." Catherine said as they left the break room and headed out towards the cars.  

"What do you think they are doing?" Jenny questioned as she getting into one of the cars. 

"Hopefully not what _you _think they are doing." Catherine replied sending Jenny as look to tell her to stop thinking what every college student would bet thinking right now. Catherine opened up one of the doors for another car. She had a feeling that taking two vehicles would come in handy tonight. "See you two at the scene." Warrick climbed into the seat next to her, and the two of them sped off.    

Jenny watched them go as Nick climbed into the driver's seat of the Tahoe. "You okay?" he asked her as he started up the car. 

"Yah, yah, I'm fine." Jenny replied sharply and bucked up. She knew how Nick drove and didn't want any of the CSI examining her after she was thrown through the front windshield after a quick stop. "I'm just thinking about stuff." what she was really thinking about was why Grissom and Sara needed to sneak around like they were doing, and why couldn't they just act normal around each other? And why is it that Catherine and Warrick always seem to be together, leaving her to be here with Nick? Is there some conspiracy being set up between everyone on this shift? And why is it that Greg is the only one that can make any good coffee? Nothing made sense to her. Everything seemed to be happening so fast, and Jenny was just going with the flow for most of the time. 

"Well, you better push all of those thoughts to the back of your mind for the time being. This case is going to need our full attention." The car started up and the country music that Nick liked blared though the speakers. Jenny shook her head at this. If there was one thing she knew, it was that the graveyard shift was one odd bunch of people. 

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	3. Three

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"What the heck happened here?" Nick said in awe as he looked over the crime scene in front of him. Catherine sat in the car next to him, totally speechless just like Nick. She just looked from one ambulance to the other, and then to the crushed car a little ways in front of them. She didn't say anything as she got out of the car and went to the trunk to get her kit. 

Warrick sat motionless in the car too, as if he was trying to collect some nerve to get out of the car and go process the scene. Jenny looked the same. Nick felt a little bad for her, she had barely been here a month and had already witnessed some hard stuff. All Nick could do was hope that this wasn't getting too much to her head. All everyone needed now was someone else like Sara, in which every case is emotionally attached somehow.  

They were on a back road on the outskirts of Vegas. It was a two-way dirt road, and about five hundred yards from where they had parked the car, stood a traffic light. Nick thought this was a little strange, being that this was a back road, and dirt for that matter also. 

On the right side of the road was a small sports car, or what would have been one. Now, the car was crusted and banged up pretty bad. It looked as if the car had hit something stationary, but there was nothing parked in front of it, or near it that it could have hit. One ambulance was next to the car, helping someone out of the driver's seat. 

On the left side of the road was another car, but this one looked perfectly fine, except for the ambulance taking the body out of the passenger's side. 

Police officers were running back and forth frantically along with EMTs and a single fireman. They were now trying to help the person out of the first car, but it didn't seem to be going too well. The driver looked as if she had been molted to the car and would not budge. The fact that she was unconscious didn't help either. 

"This is going to take a while." Catherine sighed 

Warrick took a step forward and placed an arm around her. "We'll clean this mess up, don't worry." The two of them looked at each other for a moment, until they realized that Nick and Jenny were staring at them, and Warrick removed his hand and shoved it in his pocket, "I've got this car." He said and walked over towards the car that didn't have a scratch. Catherine followed him. 

"Don' tell me that they are going to turn into a Grissom and Sara soon." Jenny moaned. 

"Don't worry, their little 'thing' started long ago. It's just friendly flirting, you know. They look out for each other, Catherine is like our mom really." Nick said with a little laugh. 

"Right." Jenny said glancing at him funny. "Yah, well, I'm going to go get the camera and start taking some pictures." She turned on her heels, and walked off towards the car to retrieve the camera. That had sort of become her signature "job." She didn't really want to interfere with anything else, so she busied herself taking pictures of anything that caught her eye at the crime scene. 

Nick watched her go, and then turned and walked towards the crushed car. It was going to be a very long night. 

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Catherine peered into the car. The body on the passenger side had already been removed. He had been shot in the head once and had died instantaneously. There goes our first witness, Catherine thought. 

The driver of the car was nowhere to be found, and Brass feared that he/she had been kidnapped, and Catherine now knew why. The door on the driver's side had been forced open with what looked like a crowbar that Warrick had found a few yards away. The door had been left open, and then the passenger had been shot. There were no traces of blood on the driver's side, meaning that that person had not been injured in the car, but escaped – somehow – without a scratch. Catherine could only hope that they were ok. 

Warrick was busy in the back of the car, looking for anything interesting. The trunk was open, but nothing could be found inside. In the back seat of the car lay a single briefcase, with a piece of tissue paper inside of it. Nothing else was out of the ordinary. 

"What do you make of this?" He asked holding the paper up for Catherine to see.

"Bag it." she said shrugging and pulled her self out of the front of the car and walked over to the other side. Warrick followed her and they both looked at the ground next to the car. 

"You got to love dirt." Warrick said turning to his kit and retrieving the plaster to make a mold of the impressions there. There were three-foot prints. Two of them were directly next to the car, as if someone had opened the door and swiveled their feet out to talk to someone on the outside. The third print was about two feet away and next to what looked like a thin tire track.

"What do you make of this?" Warrick asked looking up at Catherine who stood over him. 

"Motorcycle." Gil Grissom's voice called out from behind them. They both turned to see him standing there with his kit in hand. 

"And since when are you an expert on motorcycle tires?" Catherine asked sarcastically. 

"I'm not, but there is only one tire mark, meaning that there is only one tire."

"But Motorcycles have two tires." She pointed out. 

"But they are directly in line so the vehicle doesn't tip over. It's quite simple and this track here is a motorcycle." 

"I think you lost that little argument, Cath." Warrick said pouring the plaster into the mold. 

"Do you want to tell us where you have been?" Catherine now demanded placing her hands on her hips. 

"I was…out." Grissom replied like he went out all the time and this was a nothing matter. 

"Where's Sara?" 

"She's not here?" He asked looking around the scene that was still in frenzy. 

"No, she's not." Catherine replied coolly and then took a stop towards Grissom so she was looking directly at his face. "You better know what you are doing, Gil." She said softly so she couldn't be overhead by Warrick. "People are going to start to figure out that you two are off together if you keep on showing up late with stupid grins on your faces. If I were you, I'd make sure to keep this within the shift. You don't want anyone else involved in your _affairs_." She said dragging out the last word, and then turned away from him and went back to Warrick. 

Grissom stood there, letting her words sink in. did everyone really think that he was out with Sara? It was the truth, but they had tried to keep it as unobvious as possible.  He turned at the sound of a car engine, and saw Sara pulling up to where the other cars were parked. She killed the engine, and then got out of the car. She noticed Grissom staring at her, and she smiled, then turned and got her kit out of the car. He turned away from her before anything else could be exchanged between them. 

"So tell me what happened here." Grissom turned back to Catherine and Warrick, as Sara made her way over to Nick and Jenny, who was snapping pictures like crazy. 

"I can help you with that." Brass said walking over to where the CSI were standing. "From what I've gathered, I guess this car here, the green one," Brass said jerking his thumb in the direction of the crushed car, "Was driving down this road, when it hit something and stopped. The air bag deployed and the driver was knocked unconscious. The paramedics say that she's going to be OK.

"This car here," Brass looked at the car in front of them, the red one, "was parked here and the door had been pried open. The passenger had been shot and the driver was gone."

Grissom thought this over for a moment, "Anything else?"

"Well, what do _you_ know so far?" Brass asked knowing that nothing else _would_ be known until the CSI had processed the scene. 

"Wait, who called it in?" he asked realizing that everyone who had been at the scene was either dead, gone or unconscious.

"A trucker back there." Brass said pointing a ways down the road at a pickup truck down there. No one had noticed that truck before. 

"Let's go and see what he has to say." Grissom said motioning for Catherine to follow him, and the two of them walked away to go and question the trucker. 

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"Nice of you to show up." Nick said to Sara Sidle as she walked over to him. He was examining the front of the car trying to figure out what it had crashed into. "Where were you?"

"So, what's up with this car?" Sara asked setting her kit down on the ground next to Nick's.

"No Sidle, you're not getting off this easy." Nick said as he bent down to look at a paint chip stuck to the hood of the car. 

"If you must know, I was at the exhibit." She replied and bent down to look at the same chip with Nick.

Nick gave her a doubtful look, "What exhibit?"

"The one over at the Luxor; mummies."

"I didn't know you liked mummies."

"You don't know a lot of stuff about me Nick." Sara replied calmly and that ended their conversation about mummies. Nick really wanted to ask whom she was with at the exhibit, but he had a feeling that Sara might punch him right then and there if he did. So he dropped the topic.  

Jenny came walking over to the two of them, and leaned down as if to join in on their little discussion. "So, how was your date Sara?" she asked as if it was a topic they all discussed over at the water cooler back at the lab. 

"You're as subtle as a Mack truck." Nick said and he couldn't help laughing at her comment. Sara blushed a shade of red that Nick had never seen on her before.

"What? I want to know." Jenny answered after a moment of uneasy silence had passed.

"Get back to your pictures, I'll tell you later." Sara mumbled and tired to shoo Jenny off, but instead she started taking pictures of the car. 

"I'll remind you later." Jenny said as the light bulb on the camera flashed, temporally blinding Sara and Nick who were right in its range. It was pitch black in Vegas and at this time of night even the littlest light could cause blinding like that. 

Sara turned away from her and looked at Nick, who was scraping the paint chip off the car. Sara took a close look at it. "It looks like metallic paint of some sort." She said as Nick placed it in an envelope for analysis.  

"Well, whatever this car crashed into, it's not here anymore." Nick said as he stood up and looked around the scene. The other car was quite a ways away, and it was highly unlikely that the two cars had crashed into each other. Nick looked down at the ground for any sign of impressions that might have been made from whatever was here. Directly in front of the car were two drag marks, thin lines leading away from the car towards the side of the road that led into the woods. 

"Do you see this?" Nick said motioning for Sara to take a look. Sara looked down, and then followed where Nick was now pointing, towards the woods. 

"What could the car have hit that could have been dragged into the woods?" she looked at the car now, and for the first time noticed that the windshield had been smashed in the middle. "Whatever it is, it fell on the car, and was then moved." Sara walked closer for a better look. 

"Hey guys," Jenny's voice ran out from behind them. Nick and Sara spun around to see her crouching down on the ground taking a picture of something there. Jenny stood up and took the paper she was photographing in her hands. Nick noticed that she was standing right underneath the set of lights that was on this road. 

"Do you know what this is?" Jenny continued holding the paper up for Nick and Sara to see. They both shook their heads. 

"Should we know?" Sara said walking towards here and taking the paper. It was thin, almost like tissue paper. 

"It's diamond paper." Jenny said firmly.

"Diamond paper? And how would you know this?" Nick asked as he took the paper from Sara and looked it over.

"I used to work at a jewelry store." She said.

Nick laughed, "Jenny, from what I've collected, you've worked just about everywhere." Nick could remember one ride in the car to a crime scene with her. In lull or conversation, Jenny had listed all of her past jobs to Nick, and described, in detail, every one to him. Now he remembered that she had mentioned that she worked for a while at a jewelry store. 

"But what does this have to do with anything?" Sara asked trying to get the two of them back on topic. 

"It's diamond paper, _sans_ the diamond." She said waving the thing in front of her face. "It means that right now in the Vegas vicinity, someone at a pawn shop is getting filthy rich."   

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Hello… Now, hit that review button, and really make my day! 8-) 

(Oh, and yes, I _still _can't spell…) 

*a.l.


	4. Four

Voilà!

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"Is this going to take long?" the Trucker asked. His name was Mr. Ty, but Catherine would have been happier calling him "Trucker" the entire time. 

"Not if you cooperate." She said to him looking at Grissom who wore a stern expression. 

"Mr. Ty, please tell us how you came about this scene here." Grissom asked. Catherine could tell that he was in no mood to question the guy right now. 

"Well, I was comin' down the road here, and I noticed that there was this car here." Mr. Ty said pointing to the red car, "I then noticed the light, and thought I should stop because it was on red. I sat here for about ten minutes before I realized the light wasn't goin' change. I got out of my car and walked over to the one here, only to see that the guy in the passenger's side had been shot." 

"You said that the light was red?" Grissom inquired turning around to look at the light on this road. There wasn't any signal at the moment.

"Yes, it was. That's why I stopped. When I saw the guy shot, I got on my radio and called the police. It was about ten minutes later when the light changed from red, to then yellow, then to green, then went out." Mr. Ty said chomping away on the gum in his mouth. Catherine thought he slightly resembled a cow. 

"What about the other car, the green one?" Grissom asked indicating to the car on the opposite side of the road. 

"Oh, that one. Well, I didn't go over to see it. It was smashed, so I thought it would be better just to wait till the police came."

"Did you see what the car hit?" Grissom asked. He was starting to get frustrated. 

"Uh, no. Nothing was there. I thought that was a bit strange." 

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Grissom asked, getting restless. He wanted to move on with the investigation and not spend the whole night talking him.  

"Nope. Didn't touch anything, didn't see anything else. Can I go now? I got to get this meat to Texas now." Mr. Ty said turning to go back to his car.

 "He doesn't know anything." Catherine said turning to Grissom as Mr. Ty went back to his truck. She sighted, "I guess we're just going to have to use the evidence."

"People can't always be trusted." Grissom said as the two of them walked back to Warrick and the car.

"But it's nice to think that you _can_ trust people. If not, the world would be in a sorrier state than it is now." 

Grissom gave her a sideways glance, and Catherine turned to face him now. "Sorry if I came off hard on you earlier. I didn't mean to be pushy."

"You pushy? Never." Grissom replied with a smile. 

"I just want to make sure you aren't going to do anything foolish."

"And when have I ever done something foolish?"

"I can think of a lot of times…" Catherine said, but didn't go on to list all of the times she had saved his butt, because they had arrived back at the car and Warrick was bagging the crowbar.

"I figured we could try and get some prints off of this." He said sealing the bag up. "And it would be a good idea to take the car back to the lab. The passenger had a wallet on him. His name is Bret Verb, and he's from the city. No money is his wallet though, and nothing else out of the ordinary."

"Why do you want the car back at the lab?" Catherine questioned. 

"Well, we don't know who the driver was yet. I figured that I'd find some prints and cross-reference them with Bret's here. The second print would then be our driver's and we'd have someone to look for." Warrick said sounding pretty proud with what he had decided to do. 

"Did you do the steering wheel already?" Grissom asked noticing an absent of power.

"No, I didn't want to because I thought they would just get smudged when the car is being towed."

"The won't get smudged Warrick, do it now." Grissom said and wandered off in the other direction. 

"What is up his butt?" Warrick mumbled Catherine after Grissom was out of ear shot. 

"God knows anymore. Come on, I'll help you dust for prints." She said shaking her head and removed some of the power from her kit and the two of them set to work. 

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"You might beg to differ, but I never really was a real tomboy Nick." Sara said as the two of the trudged through the woods looking for whatever the car had crashed into. "I've never really liked the outdoors, and I am not a big fan of bugs. Stupid mosquitoes." She grumbled swatting another one away from her. 

The two of them had decided to follow the drag marks and it led them down a small embankment off the road, and then into the woods. Nick carried a flashlight out in front of him, and Sara was practically on top of him fearing that the boogieman was going to jump out at any second in front of them. Nick could only laugh at this, knowing that he had found one of Sara's weaknesses. 

"Nick, can't we just wait until it gets light out? Or can't we send on of the cops in to do this?" she asked hurriedly as if someone was going to over hear them talking. 

"Sara, chill out, okay? We'll be fine. I don't think we are going to have to head in too far to find what we are…OOMPH!" Nick stumbled forward and crashed into the ground. Sara tried to grab him, but she was too late. He fell with a thud. 

"Nick!" Sara screeched and took a step forward. That's when she tripped over the object in the midst of their path, and fell on top of Nick. For a second the two of them lay there in shock, and then Sara rolled off him and into the dirt. It took a second for her to recollect herself and shuddered at the thought of what had just happened. 

"I never thought you'd fall for me, Sara." Nick said moving to the side and getting to his knees.

"Don't flatter yourself too much." She replied sharply as Nick reached out and grabbed her hand to help her up. "What did we fall over?" she then questioned as Nick picked up his flashlight and shined it over to where the object lay. The light illuminated what looked like a ladder to both of them, and Sara crept closer for a better look. 

"There are some traces of green paint here on the side, and it looks like a shard of glass on the top." Sara stated turning to look at Nick.

"Ok then, this is what the car crashed into. But why was it then dragged here? Someone must have moved it from on top of that green car. And why hide it in the woods?" Nick questioned, "Do you think we can get this back to the road by ourselves?"

Sara looked down at the ladder. It was quite a lot bigger than any other ladder she had seen, and it was metal. It weighed probably about a hundred pounds, she thought. Sara was in no mood to lug a ladder through the woods – and she wasn't all that sure she _could_ take it – but she wasn't about to tell Nick that. 

"I think I could handle that." She said warily said as she walked over and hoisted the ladder up with Nick. 

Fifteen minutes later the two of them emerged from the forest bickering at each other. "Nick! You are going to fast!" "Sara, can't you bring your end up a little more? I feel like I'm taking all of the weight!" "So much for your claim of being a _big strong man_…" 

They dropped the ladder on the road with a thud, and realized that everyone else was standing there staring at them. "We found a ladder." Nick said whipping a bead of sweat off his forehead. Even though it was night, it was still hot, and the ladder had not been easy to carry, especially after he had walked into a tree, and Sara then dropped her end, causing Nick to drop his, and it landed on his foot.

"That's great." Catherine replied giving him a strange look.

"No, we think this ladder is what the car over there hit." Sara said pointing to the car in front of them. A tow truck had showed up and had already towed the red car, and was not working on this one. 

"Good work." Grissom stated and picked up his kit. "I think we have collected enough evidence from the scene. Now we've got to work with what we have. You got some prints off the red car, right Warrick?" he said as he turned to walk towards his car.

"Yah, a couple, but I still want to fume it once we get back to the lab." Warrick said as he followed Grissom to the car. 

Sara saw them starting to go, "Wait, what are we supposed to do with this ladder?" she asked. She was in no mood to process the thing right here and wanted to take it back to the lab and fume it with the car Warrick was going to do.

"Can you bag it?" Grissom asked sarcastically and smiled. 

"I could try." Sara replied smiling back. 

"Get into the car," Catherine said practically pushing Grissom into the driver's seat. "And I'll see you back at the lab. I'm going to finish up here." she said as Grissom pulled the door shut behind him. He then started up the car and drove back to the lab. Warrick did the same. 

"So you found this in the woods, huh?" Catherine then asked turning her attention to Sara and Nick who were examining the ladder now out in the open. 

"Yah, I think it's too dark to go back and search the area where we found it. Don't worry, we marked it." Sara declared as she closed her kit up. 

"We did?" Nick asked in confusion.

"We'll just find the mark we left when we fell. We hit pretty hard." she responded with, and Catherine's eyes widened. "No, not like that." Sara said shaking her head. "Nick and I tripped over the stupid thing."

"_Right_. Well I'm going to go tell the police officers we are all down here, and then we can get back to the lab ourselves." Catherine said and wandered off in the other direction. 

"Grissom is going to get jealous if you start taking about us like that." Nick said slyly.

"Oh grow up and help me load this into the back of my car." Sara said shooting him a nasty look. "But Grissom doesn't need to know I fell on top of you." She then said softly.

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Et maintenant, la revue s'il vous plaît. (Because i got to work on my French.) 

*a.l. 


	5. Five

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"Well look what the cat dragged in." Greg said coming out of his lad to stand in the hallway. Nick was trying to make it down the hall carrying the ladder all by himself, but it wasn't working too good. He had already smashed into two doors and broke a ceiling tile trying to get the thing inside. Sara had deserted him as soon as they got to the lab because she wanted to take a shower. Nick assumed that she just wanted to smell nice for Grissom. 

"Do you want to give me a hand instead of standing there?" Nick puffed as he placed the ladder down on the floor. 

"No, I'm enjoying watching you struggle over it." Greg said with a smile, and then disappeared back into his lab. Nick grumbled and then picked the thing back up. 

He somehow managed to get the ladder down to the garage where Catherine and Warrick stood. There had fumed the car already, and were lifting some more prints off of the dashboard. 

Nick staggered in and placed the ladder on the floor and leaned against it trying to catch his breath. 

"I hope you're not compromising anything on that thing." Warrick called to him as he pocked his head out from inside the car. 

"Let's just be happy with the fact that I got I down here, okay?" Nick took a deep breath, and then went to go fume the ladder. 

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An hour later, Jenny sat in the break room with Warrick. He had given the prints that he had lifted from the car to Jenny, and she took them to Jacki 

"Okay, this print, the partial, matched all of the others found on the driver's side of the car. Jacki ran it though CODIS, but nothing kicked out. 

"There was only one other set of prints in the car." Jenny said grabbing a sheet out of one of the file folders she had. "This one was run though CODIS too, and it kicked out a name, and it matched that of the ID you found at the scene. Bret Verb, convicted in 1996 for robbing a jewelry store at gunpoint. There was a little information about the robbery, and he had an accomplice, Christian Root, or as she was known back then. On a hunch, I had Jackie cross reference the prints from Christina with the ones recovered from the car, and guess what? They match."

"So, this Bret guy works with the same girl, but she doesn't go by Christina any more?" Warrick questioned looking at the sheet Jenny handed him.

"Nope, Jackie is still searching to match Christina's print to someone from today." 

"Okay, so we have this jewelry store robbing team. Do you think they recently robbed one, which is why we found the diamond papers at the scene?"  Warrick said as he began to scribble some notes on a spare piece of paper.

"Well, that's what I was thinking, so I checked the web. This may come as a surprise to you, but there hasn't been a robbery at a Jewelry store in Vegas for two years."

Warrick narrowed his eyes, "That doesn't sound right." 

"And I thought that too. So now I'm thinking that they aren't being reported." Jenny said pulling another paper out of the file folder. "But I dug a little deeper. I checked with some insurance agencies in the area to see if anyone had filed a claim for any stolen jewelry, and one store has. DiVinci Jewelry's filed a claim for half a million two days ago."

"And you did all of this in an hour?" Warrick asked surprised.

"I've got nothing better to do." Jenny replied with a smile as Nick entered the lab. 

"Hey, let me see your papers." He asked sitting down at the table with them. Nick opened the file he was holding and took out a paper. "I pulled this guy, Bert Verb, out on my search too." Nick said comparing the paper.  "His fingerprints were on the ladder. I also found another, but no match yet." He said a little depressed. 

"So, did the guy, Bret, leaves the car and help move the ladder to where ever it was being moved to? And then why was he shot?"

Before anyone had time to answer, Grissom walked into the break room, followed closely by Sara. The three of them sitting at the table exchanged looks, all thinking the same thing. Were Sara and Grissom together before they made their entrance here? Grissom walked over to the table and sat down with the three of them, while Sara went over to the coffee pot. She came over a moment later, with a cup for her and one for Grissom. Nick was about to open his mouth to make a comment, when Warrick kicked him from under the table and instead, he kept his mouth shut.  

"So what do we know?" Grissom posed the question to the CSI sitting at the table. 

"The man in the passenger's seat is Bret Verb, and he robbed a jewelry store back in '96 with Christina Root, who we believe was the driver of the car, but she isn't going by than name anymore." Warrick stated, and then Nick jumped in.

"I pulled some of Bret's fingerprints off the ladder, meaning that he helped move it somewhere before he died. There was another set on the ladder also, and Jacki is still running that one thought."

"And," Jenny began, "I found a Jewelry Store that was recently robbed. I believe that the diamond papers from the scene were from that store."

"And I just got a call from Brass." Grissom said taking the folders from the table. "The driver of the other car just came out of surgery and she should be awake in an hour. Nick, Warrick, I want you two to go to the jewelry store and see what you can find there. If you need a warrant for some reason, call Brass. Sara, I want you and Jenny to go to the hospital to talk to this girl." Grissom stated gathering up all of the file folders from the desk.

Sara nearly spit out her coffee.  "What?" she stammered, and Grissom looked at her surprised. 

"I want you and Jenny to go to the hospital." He repeated again. 

Sara stared at him for a moment, as if she was trying to process what he had just told her. "Uh, Okay," she finally said, "But can't Catherine go? I thought we were going to…?"

 "We'll talk when you get back Sara." Grissom practically snapped, not answering her question. He then got up and left the room. Sara watched him leave, still puzzled.

"What was that about?" Nick asked when Sara turned her attention back to the three of them sitting at the table. 

"Nothing Nick, it's nothing. Come on Jenny." Sara finished the rest of her coffee, and threw the cup in the trash and hurried out of the room.

"Oh, this is going to be a fun car ride." Jenny said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. 

"I've never seen Sara question Grissom before." Nick said after Jenny had left the room. "That's not like her at all."

"Something is bothering her." Warrick replied as the two of them made their way out of the crime lab. "And I can only guess what."

"What?" Came Greg's voice from his lab. He darted outside to hear the latest gossip. "Are you two discussing Sara and Gris? Because Grissom just came stomping by here and locked himself in his office."

"He never locks himself in his office." Warrick said looking down the hall in that direction.

"And Sara never questions Grissom." Nick added.

"And I never seem to know what anyone is talking about, so I make up my own stuff! Let's say that Grissom and Sara are having as steamy affair, but she is cheating on him with me!"  Greg said sounding hopeful. 

"How about you go putter around your lab some more?" Warrick said pushing Greg in that direction.

"Fine, your loss." He said as he disappeared inside.

Nick rolled his eyes and the two of them exchanged glances again. "Well, whatever is going on, it more than likely won't be between just the two of them for too much longer." He said as they walked over to the Tahoe. The two of them got in the car and drove off to the jewelry store. 

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Grissom watched Nick and Warrick go from his window. He watched Greg shuffle back into his lab. He had seen Sara go storming off and Jenny trailing behind her. He saw a lot of things from his office. 

 He sat there contemplating what to do next. He had just broken off his and Sara's breakfast "date" to send her to the hospital, and he could only imagine the earful he would get from her when she came back. Why had he done that? Was he scared that he and Sara would get too close? There were rules about employees seeing each other _during working hours_, but the times he and Sara had been together they had both been off of work. Going out to breakfast was okay because he had only done it a million times with Catherine, and who would really care anyway? So why had he pushed her away once again?

Maybe he was just scared of committing himself to something he wasn't sure about. He liked to be in the upper position, but with Sara, he never knew where he stood. It was almost as if she was messing with his mind to the point where the only way for him to keep her at bay was to push her away. Grissom knew that sounded stupid, but what could he really do? He couldn't desert everything just so he and Sara could have a relationship, and Sara knew that also. But when it came to this topic, Sara really didn't seem to care about anything pertaining to work. 

Grissom rubbed his head in confusion. He had feeling for Sara, and he knew that she had the same ones. So why was he so scared for the two of them to get closer?

"You don't look too good." Catherine commented from his doorway. 

"I don't feel too good." Grissom mumbled back. 

"You know, I would have gone to the hospital." She said slowly waking into his office and taking a seat. 

"I know that."

"So why did you send Sara?" Catherine questioned. 

Grissom thought for a moment, "Because."

"You've _never_ answered a question with 'because' Grissom. What is this all about? What is wrong with you and Sara?" 

"I don't know." Grissom mumbled again. Catherine stared at him for a few seconds, and then she leaned over in her chair.

"Grissom, you have no idea what you are doing, do you?" she asked. Grissom turned to look at her. "Now, I know you are incapable of making pleasant social interaction, and _never_ in a romantic relationship, but this is Sara we are talking about. She's a delicate person, Grissom, _with feelings_. That might come as a surprise to you, but it's true."

"Catherine, if you are in here just to make fun of me…" Grissom began, but Catherine cut him off. 

"Look, I'm going to put this real simple for even you to understand." Catherine said rolling her eyes a little, "But Sara has not had the best relationships in the world. Let's look at exhibit A: Hank. He was a total slime ball and Sara fell really hard for him. Now I know this time she fell for someone a whole lot better, so let's not prove her wrong, okay?" Grissom stared at her though his glasses. 

"Do you follow?" she asked.

"I follow Catherine, but what do you want me to do?"

"It's always what people want _you_ to do isn't it? How about you just sit back and enjoy the ride, Grissom? You might like where it is going to take you." Catherine gave him one more look, and then got up from her chair. "I'm going to…I'm going to go do something." She finally finished even though she wasn't sure what she was going to do yet. "I'll be around if you need me." She said and turned and walked out of the room.

Grissom sat there now trying to figure out what Catherine had just told him. She had said for him to sit back and let everything run its course. The thing is that he was scared about where that course might end up. 

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Thanks for the reviews guys. I'm going on vacation so the next chapter won't be posted for about a week, so I suggest watching some CSI reruns on TNN at two in the morning. That's how I get my CSI fix. :-)

*a.l. 


	6. Six

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DiVinci Jewelry's was a little home in the wall in one of the older parts of Vegas. Warrick parked the car right out front and he and Nick got out. The building's front window had bars on the front, and on the glass door leading inside also. As they entered the store, a small chime went off and a girl from one of the back rooms came out front.

"Hi, can I help you?" she said putting on a fake smile. Warrick noticed that she looked no older than sixteen and she didn't sound too enthusiastic. 

"Yah, Hi, I'm Warrick Brown and this is Nick Stokes. We're with the crime lab and we would like to ask you a few questions." Warrick said walking over to the counter where the girl stood. The girl looked startled for a minuet, and then nodded her head.

"Uh, you should probably talk to my dad." She said and disappeared in back again. 

Nick walked around the store looking in all of the cases at all of the fine jewelry. He didn't really like jewelry stores, they intimidated him and he always felt like he had to buy something, weather or not he had the money. He walked over to one of the cases – the engagement ring case – and peered inside. 

"Ever shop for one of these?" Nick asked half jokingly to Warrick. Warrick came over to look in the case with Nick. 

"Yup." He replied and walked away

"What? You shopped for a ring before?" Nick asked startled, "Was this the same girl with the three hundred dollar purse?" he quipped. 

"Actually, yes. We were pretty serious if you must know." Warrick replied not really paying attention to Nick. 

"So what happened?" Nick now had to know how this whole ordeal unfolded. 

"People can fall out of love just as quickly as they fall into it." Warrick replied sullenly. "Good thing I didn't buy the ring."

"Yah, because it wouldn't look to good on you." Nick peered back into the case, and Warrick came over to look with him. 

"This glass was just recently replaced." He noted, "See? The top part of the glass doesn't have any scratched, while the case next to it is covered in them. And I think I can still see some glue."  

Nick bent down for a closer look, "You're right…" he began to say when a nicely dressed older man came out to the front of the store. 

"Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked walking over to them. 

"Yes, We're with the crime lab and we would like to ask you a few questions." Warrick posed, and then turned his attention to the case in front of him. "Was this glass recently replaced?"

The man tensed up for a moment, and then relaxed, "Yes, we had a robbery about three days ago. The glass was smashed when I went in back to check on a price for a couple."

"A couple? A man and a woman?" Nick asked excitedly

"Obviously." Warrick muttered under his breath for him.

"Yes, they were looking at rings together, and asked me to double check a price for them on a ring. I ran in back for a moment, and when I came back out the glass on this case had been smashed, three rings were gone and the safe was open. Five diamonds had been stolen." The man said looking down at the ground. "My daughter was supposed to be watching the front of the store, instead of checking her e-mails."

At this the daughter came running out front, all in a blaze, "Well, maybe I would be a little more attentive if I actually liked my summer job!" she screeched, "then you could have hired someone who is actually qualified for the job to work here, and they would pay attention to the customers!"

"Emily, calm down. We'll discuss this later," the man said shortly. 

"Sir, do you have the glass from this case?" Nick asked

"Yes, Emily vacuumed it up."  The man replied, shooting a look at his daughter who was no longer paying attention to her dad, but smiling at Nick. 

"Do you think we could have that bag?" 

"And could we possibly fingerprint your safe?" Warrick then added.

"Oh, certainly. Please, do whatever you must to find who stole my diamonds." The man said, and walked to the back of the store again. 

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"I don't know how this is going to help you," Emily said walking out from the back room holding the vacuum cleaner bag in her hands. "But here it is." She handed the bag over to Nick, who promptly bagged it.

"Thanks." He said to her, and turned to walk away.

"What's a CSI?" she asked before he could reach the door.

"A crime scene investigator." Nick answered without turning around. 

"That's cool. Do you have a gun?" Emily asked leaning against the front counter. 

"Yup." Nick replied curtly. 

"Ever had one pulled on you?" Emily really seemed to want to know a lot of information. 

Nick sighed, "Yes I have." 

"Ah. The guy that was in here had a gun."

This caught Nick's attention, and he turned around to face her. "What?" he asked, now interested in what she was saying. 

"The guy that robbed the store. I saw he had a gun." Emily replied.

 "How did you see him?" Nick questioned moving over to the counter where Emily was.

"On the camera." She said pointing to the ceiling, and sure enough a camera was stationed there.

"Do you have a tape of robbery?"

"Tape? Oh no, my dad's too cheap to tape what happens in the store. If he _was_ taping it, then we might actually report all of the robberies we've had, this isn't the first one." Emily said shaking her head. "No, the camera is just hooked up to a monitor in the back and I can see the people coming and going."

"While you're checking your mail." Nick added.

"Exactly!" Emily now seemed to be enthusiastic. 

"Did you happen to see the woman this man was with?"

"Yup." Emily replied taking a tootsie roll from a basket on the counter and popped it in her mouth. "She had blonde hair, and it looked so fake. You can always tell if someone dyes their hair by their eyebrows, and hers were dark brown."

"Do you remember anything else?" Nick questioned, now realizing that Emily could describe who might have been in the car that night. 

"She was tall, about five seven, kind of lanky, and had deep green eyes. And she also had this mole or something on her right check. Ever seen _Goldmember_? It was a mole like that and I really just wanted to poke it off…" Emily shuddered.  

"Could you come down to the lab and give that description to a sketch artist? That would really help us out." Nick could only hope that she would agree to this.

"Hey, if it gets me out of this store, I'm there."  Emily smiled and took another tootsie roll. 

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	7. Seven

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The car was quite, too quite for Jenny's liking. She desperately wanted to ask Sara about her latest outing with Grissom, but she feared that there would be sever consequences if she just posed the question out of the blue. So she stat in silence, taking quite glances over at Sara to try and figure out what she was thinking. When they were stuck at a red light, Jenny thought that this would not be a good time because Sara was probably frustrated with having to wait for the light to change to green. And when someone cut them off in traffic, Jenny realized that Sara would now be aggravated and probably just curtly answer her questions. 

Sara knew Jenny desperately wanted to know about her date with Grissom, but she was in really no mood to talk to the young girl about it now. She was too buys processing everything that had happened in the last few weeks. It had all stared when Grissom sort of asked her out. One outing had turned into another, and that had lead to something else, and so on and so forth. Sara knew how she felt about the whole ordeal, but she could only imagine what Grissom was thinking. She was happy and ecstatic about the thought that maybe something would work out between them, but Grissom on the other hand would more than likely be precarious and cynical about what these little dates would turn into. Oh well, it's always nice to think about what might be. 

Jenny saw a little smile spread across Sara's lips, and took this chance to ask the million dollar question that everyone wanted to know but was too afraid to ask: "So, what's with you and Grissom?" she asked feeling relieved that she had finally gotten the question out. 

Jenny swore she felt the car jerk a little to the side as Sara stiffened up and cautiously looked over at the young intern in the passenger's seat. "Who wants to know?" Sara asked. 

"Oh come on," Jenny replied rolling her eyes, "Even day shift is wondering." 

"They better not be." Sara said dryly knowing that once this information got to Eckley, her and Grissom might be facing some different obstacles. 

"Okay, maybe not day shift, but just about everyone else." 

"Well, what do _you_ want to know?" Sara said, as she turned onto the road that led to the hospital where the driver of the green car was being held. 

"Do you love him? Does he love you? Are you going to get married and have kids and can I come to the wedding?" Jenny asked as if she had known Sara forever and this was just a typical question posed to the other one.  Jenny then swore that she felt Sara swerve the car again. 

"Uh, how about you ask some other questions." Sara asked worriedly knowing that whatever she was about to tell Jenny would soon find it's way to Greg, and then after that it would all snowball. 

"Where'd you guys go?" 

"We went to the Luxor to see the new exhibit they have there on mummies." Sara replied calmly. 

"How romantic." Jenny mumbled. 

"What, did you want him to take me on one of those gondolier rides over at the Venetian?"

"I think that would be better." 

"I'm not into that stuff." Sara replied as she took another turn that lead into the hospital's parking lot. 

"Oh come on," Jenny retorted, "Everyone likes that mushy love stuff."

"Well, I don't." Sara replied as she pulled the car into a parking space. 

"Good. Me neither." Sara stared at Jenny for a second with disbelief, and then she laughed.  

"You do amaze me, Jenny." She said as she stopped the car. "And what would a guy do to win your heart?" 

"Laugh at my jokes, watch movies and play video games with me, and just be there and listen when I need him." She said kind of half-heartedly. "There aren't many guys like that out there." 

There was a short moment of silence between the two of them as they got out of the car and made their way towards the hospital entrance. Then, Jenny spoke up again. 

"So now what?" She asked as they walked to reception. 

"With me and Grissom? Who knows? I'm just trying to take this one-day at a time. But I've just been thinking a lot lately and…" Sara trailed off and stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Never mind." She finished and began to walk again. The two of them were silent as they walked up to the reception desk and asked for the room of the driver of the green car, Maria Cruz. The receptionist directed them to the third floor, room 926.

"It's just that Grissom's a different kind of person." Sara stared up again as they got into one of the elevators. "One minuet we can be having a good time, and the next we are a work and he doesn't seem to give me the time of day. Like earlier, we were supposed to go and grab a bite to eat, but then he sent me here."

"I'm sorry if I had anything to do with it." Jenny replied as they reached the third floor and began to walk down the hallway. 

"No, it's not you. It's just…I don't think I even know. I've got to think about this whole thing." Sara said as she took a deep breath and pushed door number 926 open. Jenny lingered for a moment trying to process what Sara had just said. If she had learned anything so far from being with Sara, it was that it is not good when Sara tries to second-guess anything. 

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"She sustained massive internal bleeding, so she might not be totally conscious yet." The nurse told Sara in a hushed voice. "She came out of surgery about an hour ago, and she's been talking a little. I'll be back in a few minutes to check on her." The nurse left the room silently and headed down the hallway. 

Jenny had made herself comfy in one of the chairs next to the bed, and Sara went and sat down in one next to her. The heart rate monitor beeped every few seconds, and that was the only noise in the room until Maria stirred in her bed and rolled over onto her back. Her eyes then fluttered open and she looked over at Sara and Jenny. 

"Hi Maria. I'm Sara Sidle and this is Jenny Duke. We're with the crime lab and we'd like to ask you some questions about what happened." Sara said softly as if she didn't want Maria to hear her and leaned forward in her chair. 

Maria stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, as if trying to recollect what had actually happened. "I'm not quite sure." She finally said turning to look at Sara. "I was coming home from a party and I thought I'd take a short cut home. Look what good that did me." She stated coughing a little. 

"Do you remember the car hitting an object in the middle of the road?" Sara questioned. 

"Of course I remember it, but I didn't see it. It was dark and I didn't have my high beams on. I remember driving down the road and seeing a traffic light. It was on green, so I figured it was ok to go." She paused for a moment, coughing again. "The next thing I remember my air bag was coming at me and then I woke up here."

"Do you remember the front windshield shattering?" Jenny asked hopefully. Maria shook her head and began to cough again. She has a deep gash in her forehead from when the glass shattered. "How cold she have not seen a _metallic silver ladder_, in the _center of the lane_?" Jenny turned to Sara and mumbled. 

"She could have been drunk." Sara whispered back and focused her attention once again on Maria. "Do you mind if I ask, had you been drinking at the party, Maria?" 

Maria hesitated for a moment, "Yes. But only a couple. I was told that I was still under the legal blood alcohol level, and no charges would be pressed." 

"Well, we're going to have to see about that. Thank you for you time." Sara said and stood up. Jenny followed her gesture and thanked Maria, and then hurried out of the room after Sara. 

"I think she was telling the truth." Sara grumbled as she pressed the button for the elevator. "If she had been drinking then her vision might have not have been totally together when she hit the ladder and actually might not have seen it. I'm going to want to see some blood samples from here, but other than that, she's really no help."

"There's just one thing." Jenny said as the two of them got into the ladder. "If Maria was drunk, she would have probably been driving pretty fast, right? So ok, she's driving down the road, and she slam into the ladder. Wouldn't the ladder have fallen this way," Jenny leached forward in a falling motion, "Instead of falling back _onto_ the car?" Jenny now leaned back, simulating the ladder falling. 

Sara ran what she said threw her head for a moment. Now that Jenny was brining this to her attention, it made perfect sense. The ladder would have fallen forward and now backwards. "I guess we'll have to check on that." She finally responded with. "But what would have caused the ladder to fall back onto the car instead of forward?" 

Jenny shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me." 

Before leaving, Sara requested some blood samples from Maria, and the lady at reception got a doctor to get them for her. They left with the blood samples in hand and walked back to the car and climbed in. 

"So, how about this time you tell me about your roller costar date with Grissom?" Jenny asked hopefully.

Sara laughed, "Another car ride Jenny." 

Jenny nodded her head, disappointed though. "Ok, how about you tell me what you did before you were a CSI? I've been meaning to ask."

Sara got very quite for a moment. "I don't remember."

"How could you not remember?" Jenny questioned, "You're only like, thirty, so that was ten years ago." Then she paused. "Is it that you don't remember, or is it that there wasn't anything else?" 

The car came to an intersection, and Sara brought the car to a halt. She turned to look at Jenny sitting in the seat next to her. "There never was anything else." She said and turned back to the road and began to drive again. And it was true. She had known from an early age that she wanted to grow up and become a criminalist and never really considered anything else as a job. 

"Oh." Jenny said kind of weakly, and turned to look out the window.

"What about you?" Sara said trying to start up the conversation again. "If the lab decides to bring you on, will you accept?"

"I think so." Jenny replied, "I just want to make sure I keep my options open though. I just don't want to do anything I know in ten years I won't be happy with."

The conversation stopped after this, and Sara spend the rest of the car ride thinking about what Jenny had just said.

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End file.
